In America, we don’t deal with death particularly well. We’ll check the funeral box and then move on, bottling up our emotions and distracting ourselves with gadgets and material goods. All this, despite the fact that the one thing that most clearly and distinctly binds us together is our common fate. Death is coming for all of us, and with very few exceptions, there will be no sign that we ever existed.
But there is something beyond death, which Paul addresses here. Paul wrote this part of his epistle to correct misconceptions about the resurrection of Christ held by the Corinthians, influenced by various strains of both Jewish and Greek thought. Specifically, there were likely many in the church who doubted the bodily resurrection of Christ. Paul attacks this misconception ferociously.
Paul may in fact be quoting from an early creed in verses 3 & 4, one that may date from shortly after the ascension. He then goes on to tally up the hundreds of people who saw the resurrected Christ, ending with his own encounter with the risen savior on the road to Damascus. Everyone who saw Him was left changed. Once you see, you can’t unsee. As Philip Yancey writes:
“If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter a preview of ultimate reality. Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life.
“This, perhaps, describes the change in the disciples’ perspective as they sat in locked rooms discussing the incomprehensible events of Easter Sunday. In one sense nothing had changed: Rome still occupied Palestine, religious authorities still had a bounty on their heads, death and evil still reigned outside. Gradually, however, the shock of recognition gave way to a long slow undertow of joy. If God could do that…”
The resurrection is the focal point of the redemption of both creation and of our own broken souls. It reverses the sin curse of Genesis 3.
But it did not wipe out sin and death immediately. It is a light shining in the darkness and a promise of the ultimate victory of that light. If we try to shine our own light, we are only perpetuating that darkness. The resurrection is the light that can pierce the shadows of this life.
The resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith. We cannot let it sit on the shelf as a dusty doctrine. The resurrection is our active, living connection to the love of God. It is the defeat of death, the key to God’s kingdom and the pathway to an abundant life in the here and now. It is there for the taking if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord.
– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, October 15, 2017
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
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